iPhone 6s Named World's Most Popular Smartphone Ahead of iPhone 7

[pika2000]

Apple has had two quarters of declining unit volumes for iPhone, so no growth is not a myth. Unit sales will bounce between negative growth to slightly positive, in tandem with new models and replacement cycles. But long-term growth is gone. Developed nations are saturated, emerging markets including China have pivoted to lower-cost alternatives. Apple will have to go down-market if it wants to see material unit growth.

Again, many people have this misconception about emerging markets, China, SE Asia, etc. People like you think that you must bring cheap goods for these market. This is contrary to the reality. The rising middle class in these markets are aspiring for the high end goods. Go to Japan and look how many Chinese tourists buying iPhones. Even Samsung knows this. Samsung opens pre-orders for their Note 7, not a cheap phone, in countries like Indonesia, and they are sold out in a blink of an eye. Apple has not even released the SE in Indonesia, and the old iPhone 6 are still selling.
You only look at unit sales. Apple is not playing the volume game to the likes of Acer/Asus. Apple is playing the margin game, which is more sustainable in the long term. You think that to enter emerging markets, you have to cater to all segments. Not true. I take Indonesia as an example again, where Ferrari and McLaren are opening showrooms in malls. It makes no sense based on your logic of the market going to lower cost alternatives. Apple is not Lenovo/Xiaomi.

 

[BootsWalking]

Again, many people have this misconception about emerging markets, China, SE Asia, etc. People like you think that you must bring cheap goods for these market. This is contrary to the reality. The rising middle class in these markets are aspiring for the high end goods. Go to Japan and look how many Chinese tourists buying iPhones. Even Samsung knows this. Samsung opens pre-orders for their Note 7, not a cheap phone, in countries like Indonesia, and they are sold out in a blink of an eye. Apple has not even released the SE in Indonesia, and the old iPhone 6 are still selling.
You only look at unit sales. Apple is not playing the volume game to the likes of Acer/Asus. Apple is playing the margin game, which is more sustainable in the long term. You think that to enter emerging markets, you have to cater to all segments. Not true. I take Indonesia as an example again, where Ferrari and McLaren are opening showrooms in malls. It makes no sense based on your logic of the market going to lower cost alternatives. Apple is not Lenovo/Xiaomi.

I understand that there's a strong middle class that has emerged in China. But iPhone sales have declined deeply there, much of it due to lower-cost competition from domestic hand makers.

 

[pika2000]

I understand that there's a strong middle class that has emerged in China. But iPhone sales have declined deeply there, much of it due to lower-cost competition from domestic hand makers.

And again, that's a concern if you are a volume seller. Apple is not volume seller, it's margin seller.
And it's okay to go after volume or margin, depending on your company. You are claiming Apple should be the first group, while I argue Apple is the latter, and they are not interested to be part of the first group.

 

[BootsWalking]

And again, that's a concern if you are a volume seller. Apple is not volume seller, it's margin seller.
And it's okay to go after volume or margin, depending on your company. You are claiming Apple should be the first group, while I argue Apple is the latter, and they are not interested to be part of the first group.

But Apple's China iPhone revenue was down 33% so the margin mix there is not working there for Apple. Even a high-margin seller has to reevaluate their product mix/margin strategy when revenue drops so precipitously.